Hi,
Saw a recent topic about PDF readers but I didn’t find anything in there about PDF editors. What would be the best PDF editors (obv you need to read the PDFs as well) to run on Windows as well as my iphone and ipad?
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In terms of privacy? Libreoffice draw. But it’s not classic standard PDF editor, though it can often do the good job
Most of pdf editros are commercial products, I know there’s one freeware but I forgot the name. I used FlexiPDF (from Softmaker) and MasterPDF. Both are ok IMO
Stirling PDF is FOSS I believe and feature rich
You can use it locally or self host it as to run it on your phone/tablet in their web browser
In addition to the fact that both tools mentioned are proprietary software, I’d like to point out that MasterPDF is, if my memory serves me correctly, developed by a Russian company. This might be significant, depending on your specific threat level. Also a large number of these tools originate from China (PDF Element, Foxit PDF, UPDF, PDF Reader Pro, etc.)
With that in mind, I find it challenging to endorse any PDF editor when it comes to protecting your privacy. Almost all advanced PDF editing tools are proprietary, which inherently raises privacy issues. You have a couple of options: either settle for a less feature-rich software or opt for one of the widely used proprietary PDF editors and mitigate privacy risks by using something like Portmaster to block their internet communications.
Okular runs on Windows. Okular - KDE Applications
Thats not a PDF editor… Right?
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I use PDFsam
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@May @benm I’ve installed both of these on my laptop. I’ll try them out and see how I like them. My question is, is there a way to have that align with the program I use on my mobile apple products? Do either of these have an app? Or is there another editor that does?
for editor probably libreoffice draw is your best bet + I really like the software even if “safety” is not a concern.
Yes, I also use PDFsam, but opensource version has not so many options as their commercial one (Enhanced). I would call it pdf manipulator, not editor. Unfortunately Pdfsam Enhanced is not available on Linux, and also it’s not sold but leased (subscription based) which makes no sense for this type of program.
Stirling PDF looks OK, but again, using docker and local server for document editor is a bit too much for desktop user needs.
@patron
Yes, you are right Master PDF is made by Russian company (Code Industry), but I don’t think it’s a big deal. For safety, one can always check it’s network usage, but it looks to me it’s a good old offline-first PC program. There’s also flathub version available.
FelxiPDF I use via wine on Linux, and it works ok (sometimes fonts might be an issue)
The free program I tried once is called PDF gear. I don’t know what is their privacy policy, but it does the good job for a free progam. Though it’s a little bit hard to understand their business model, as they also offer free online tools, AI tools, etc.
Another free program is pdf24. It’s also more manipulator than editor, but it’s used by businesses/corporations, so I would expect it is ok, at least desktop version.
I looked at this extensively recently and haven’t found any except Draw that are open source and free.
I wasn’t able to run Okular because it uses Microsoft Store to update and that is disabled on my machine.
Even though I don’t like Draw’s UI, that’s the one I’m using, lack of choices.
fair enough, honestly my use case is just splitting and merging pdfs most of the time.
Nobody mentioned Qoppa.com, Seriously ?
Isn’t this a proprietary software?
I just found PDF4QT
https://github.com/JakubMelka/PDF4QT
Looks good, still haven’t checked all the possibilities
I thought of it to be Open-source the way it was advertised.
This one is cool is real good. I got fooled by the crappy version in flatpak but the AppImage version is too good. Could be done better if they integrate nicely in KDE and GNOME and digital sign rendering.
Yes, I also saw comments on Flatpak, and use AppImage.
It is good, but not as good as other commercial programs. Though it is in development, so maybe in future there might be a great open-source pdf editor
I think this is the only FOSS PDF editor that can be used locally unlike Stirling PDF which is docker based.